Page 104 of The Fire We Make

“I’m not,” he said. “Just taking notes.”

She glanced at him. “For what?”

“Future reference.”

They ate on the couch in comfortable silence with nothing but the soft jazz and occasional smacking filling the room.

The quiet wasn’t awkward. It was easy and comfortable, like just each other’s presence was enough.

Joy wasn’t used to that, but she’d be a liar if she said she didn’t enjoy it.

“You like jazz?” she asked once they’d finished. “Or are you just setting the mood?”

Ace chuckled. “You think I’m trying to seduce you?”

“Are you?”

“Is it working?”

“I was seduced before I got here. The ambiance isn’t needed.”

Ace threw his head back and laughed. “Nah. I like jazz. It calms me. I spent a lot of time with my grandfather growing up and this is the only thing he listened to.”

“Training to take over the business?”

Ace’s expression shuttered for only a moment before he answered. “Yeah.”

“I like it,” Joy said. Though the last song that played was only an instrumental, the one that began a moment later held the sultry vocals of a Dinah Washington.

“Yeah… Helps calm me. Slow things down. Pops always stressed the importance of being decisive but not rushing.”

Joy tilted her head. “You don’t strike me as the patient type.”

Ace grinned as he began clearing their plates. “Depends on what I want.”

He took their plates to the kitchen, then rejoined Joy on the couch. He pulled her into him and Joy couldn’t help but to snuggle into the heat and hardness of his body. At the thought of hardness, Joy’s attention went to Ace’s hard dick poking her in her stomach. She dragged her hands from his chest to the waistband of his sweats intent on continuing what they started but Ace’s hand gripped her wrist.

“Have you changed your mind in the last hour?”

Joy huffed. “No,” she mumbled.

“Then neither have I,” he said, placing her hand on his chest.

Joy didn’t argue.

“You don’t have a tv,” she whispered her observation of the spacious room.

“I don’t watch tv.”

“What about if guests want to watch tv”

“I don't have guests.”

Joy refrained from pointing out that she was there and indeed a guest.

“What do you do for fun?” she asked instead.

“I haven’t had fun since I was 12,” he answered flatly.